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The meaning of the word is very poetic, viz., "The Land of the Morning Calm," and is one well adapted to the present Coreans, since, indeed, they seem to have entirely lost the vigour and strength of their predecessors, the Koraians. I believe Marco Polo was the first to mention a country which he called Coria; after whom came the Franciscan missionaries.
In matters concerning the dead, the Coreans are heedless of expense, and large sums are spent in satisfying the wishes that dead people convey to the living through those scamps, the astrologers. The life of a Corean woman, though that of a slave kept in strict seclusion, with prospects of floggings and head-chopping, is not always devoid of adventures.
We learnt through our interpreter that a French frigate had left Loo-choo for Corea two months before twenty-seven of their countrymen, chiefly missionaries, having been murdered by the Coreans.
"Well!" I remember saying, as I stood perplexed, looking at the little hero, "if that does not beat all I have seen before, I do not know what can!" Yes, for hard heads and for insensibility to pain, I cannot recommend to you better persons than the Coreans.
The Coreans may, therefore, be forgiven if, besides showing almost religious veneration for their feline friend who reciprocates this in his own way they have also the utmost terror of him. Whenever I went for long walks outside the town with Coreans, I noticed that when on the narrow paths I was invariably left to bring up the rear, although I was a quicker walker than they were.
Where the Coreans and I might have said all Asiatics excel, is in their capacity to show contempt. They do this in the most gentleman-like manner one can imagine.
What the Coreans consider the greatest of dangers in such contingencies happens when the heavy beam which forms the chief support for the whole weight of the roof in the centre catches fire. Then, if any wind happens to be blowing, sparks fly on all the neighbouring thatched roofs, and there is no possibility of stopping a disaster.
Naturally the continuous incursions of both Chinese and Japanese into this country have left distinct traces of their passage on the general appearance of the people; and, of course, the distinction which I shall endeavour to make is not so marked as that between whites and blacks, for the Coreans, speaking generally, do bear a certain resemblance to the other peoples of Mongolian origin.
The Tokio government now resolved upon firm measures, and, while it exacted compensation from the Coreans, it sent Count Ito Hirobumi to China to bring about an accommodation with the Pekin government. At that conjuncture, there is no doubt that China possessed advantages in the Corean peninsula that were lacking to the Japanese.
From the road to execution, January twenty-eight, one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. This king's greed has been much whetted by what he stole from the "San Felipe." It is said that next year he will go to Luzon, and that he does not go this year because of being busy with the Coreans.
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